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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29723757">It Had To Be You</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeromesqualor/pseuds/jeromesqualor'>jeromesqualor</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sports Night</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, Oblivious, Pining, Secret Crush</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 06:55:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,741</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29723757</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeromesqualor/pseuds/jeromesqualor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan casually mentions the giant crush he had on Casey when they first met. Casey freaks out.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Casey McCall/Dan Rydell</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>It Had To Be You</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Set during season one.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“God, I can’t believe I used to have a crush on you,” Dan says, laughing, burying his face in his hands.</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Casey does a double take mid-rant. He was taking a moral stand on something pretty insignificant, perched on his desk while Dan sits on the couch in their office. “Wait,” he says, pausing as his brain tries to process that information, “What?”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“What?” Dan asks, rubbing his eye, face scrunched up in confusion. He’s being so casual that Casey thinks he must have misunderstood.</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“You… had a crush on me?” Casey tries to sound casual, too, but it comes out high and strangled.</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5"><span class="tm6">Dan just looks more confused. “Yeah?” He sounds like he’s trying to make sense of the question. Then it clicks, and he leans back on the couch, his face finally mirroring the shocked expression on Casey’s. “But you knew that. You </span> <em> <span class="tm7">obviously</span> </em> <span class="tm6"> knew that.”</span></p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Casey swallows. “When –“</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“When we first met – Casey! I used to follow you around like a lost puppy. Everybody knew I had a crush on you. I was not skilled at hiding it whatsoever.”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5"><span class="tm6">“Oh,” Casey croaks. He searches his memories for evidence. Dan </span> <em> <span class="tm7">did</span> </em> <span class="tm6"> follow him around like a lost puppy, but Dan was a teenager and Casey was cool and older. (At least, he was definitely older.) Dan was probably a bit more touchy-feely than a lot of his other friends – hugs, arms slung over his shoulder, knees pressing together for a moment sitting on the couch – but definitely not a distinctly non-platonic amount. He remembers the two of them laughing a lot – and how Dan would sometimes smile at him, warm and bright and fond, even though Casey mostly only saw it out of the corner of his eye. </span></p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Casey feels his mouth go dry. Then: “I need to talk to Dana.” He bolts out the door before Dan can stop him. </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">He finds Dana on her way to the conference room. “Did you know Dan used to have a crush on me?” he asks, falling into step beside her.</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5"><span class="tm6">“Is this a trick question?” she asks breezily. Casey was expecting her to stop in her tracks, take a minute to consider this outlandish possibility for the first time, maybe throw in a confused </span> <em> <span class="tm7">what are you taking about </span> </em> <span class="tm6">or two for good measure. But she doesn’t even break her stride.</span></p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“Dan told me he used to have a crush on me. When we first met.”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“Right,” Dana says, scribbling something on her clipboard, “You knew that.”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Casey squares up defensively. “I did not know that.”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5"><span class="tm6">Dana stops walking and faces Casey, letting her clipboard hang limply at her side. She sighs. “Casey. You </span> <em> <span class="tm7">knew</span> </em> <span class="tm6"> that.”</span></p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“I did not know that!” Casey says, louder than he intended. He looks around sheepishly to see if he’s drawn anyone’s attention. </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5"><span class="tm6">“You cannot be serious. You could see it from </span> <em> <span class="tm7">space</span> </em> <span class="tm6">.”</span></p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“So you did know about it.”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Dana hugs her clipboard to her chest and shrugs helplessly. “Of course I did. Everyone did.”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“Everyone knew about this but me.”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“Everyone knew about this except, apparently, you.”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Casey tucks his chin into chest and mumbles, “Including Lisa?”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Dana softens. She reaches out and squeezes Casey’s bicep. “Yeah. Including Lisa.” She checks her watch. “Also, we have a rundown meeting in three minutes.”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“Shit.”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">The rundown meeting is weird. Casey doesn’t take anything in – Jeremy wants to do a feature on snowboarding, maybe? – and spends most of the time being acutely aware of where his body is in relation to Dan’s. (For the record: a totally normal, friends-and-colleagues distance apart.) He wonders how oblivious he was to these supposed romantic overtures Dan had been making. He wonders about how angry Lisa was when he chose doing sports in Dallas with Dan over late night, and considers if he hadn’t given due weight to how much of her reaction was to the “with Dan” portion of that decision. </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">They walk back to their office together, and Dan asks him if he’s freaking out. </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“I am not freaking out,” he says. Definitive. Then again for emphasis: “I am not freaking out.” </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Dan nods.</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Casey sits at his desk and Dan sits at the table, and they work silently on tonight’s script for a while. Casey can’t concentrate, and whatever he manages to write, he hates. So he takes a deep breath and decides to clear the air. </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“So how big of a crush are we talking?” he asks, casual, not looking up from his computer screen. </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Dan’s eyes don’t leave the pages he’s working on in front of him. “Huge. Only man-made object visible from space.”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“And the Great Wall of China.”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“That’s a myth,” Dan says, turning the page in front of him over. </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“Wait, seriously?” Casey’s head pops up and he shoots Dan a disbelieving look.</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Dan meets his eyes and smiles before circling something on the page with a Sharpie. “Yup.”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5"><span class="tm6">“So I guess that would make your crush </span> <em> <span class="tm7">bigger</span> </em> <span class="tm6"> than the Great Wall of China.”</span></p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Dan lets out a short, mirthless laugh and turns the page over. “Yup.”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Suddenly Casey can practically feel the gears turning in his own head, and a follow-up question escapes before he can stop it. “Wait, so when did this crush subside?” </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Dan puts down this Sharpie and pushes the papers away, looking seriously at Casey. A few moments pass waiting for Dan to answer, and Casey feels his stomach knot. He’s about to take the question back when Dan speaks. </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“Look, Casey, I was really young, and you were my best friend, and straight, and had a girlfriend – soon-to-be wife – so I got over it.” He shrugs, picking up the Sharpie and idly fiddling with it in one hand. “It’s not that big a deal. And we have a show to write, so I need you not to be freaking out about this.”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“What if I wasn’t,” Casey says in a rush, not meeting Dan’s gaze. </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“Wasn’t what?”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Casey clears his throat. “The reasons you got over it. What if I wasn’t those things?”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5"><span class="tm6">“Uh.” Dan furrows his brow, taps the Sharpie against his thigh. He counts the points off on his fingers. “If you weren’t my best friend, I probably wouldn’t have had such a crush in the first place. So cross that off the list. If you were into guys, you nonetheless had a girlfriend. And you’re not that guy. If you were single, you are nonetheless straight. And if you were into guys </span> <em> <span class="tm7">and</span> </em> <span class="tm6"> single, you made it pretty clear that you weren’t interested. So I would still have gotten over it.”</span></p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Casey’s stomach is churning. His skin is suddenly a size too small and hot all over. “What if I was?”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“What?”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“Interested.” </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5"><span class="tm6">Casey has never really considered it before, but he’s considering it now, and he thinks he is. Interested. He’s always wanted to be close to Dan – they spend twelve hours a day in each other’s pockets at work and not only has he never gotten sick of him, he usually wants to hang out with him after, too. And he recognises that Dan is good-looking; he’s not </span> <em> <span class="tm7">blind</span> </em> <span class="tm6">. But this is the first time he’s ever considered those two things in a potential relationship to one another. Scratch that: the thought has occurred to him before, with his arm around a drunk Dan’s waist in Atlantic City or falling asleep on Dan’s couch after Lisa told him she wanted a separation or when he sets up a joke and Dan knocks it out of the park instinctively, like he knows exactly what Casey was thinking. A stupid smile he can’t shake, a warmth pooling in his belly, a hug he holds a fraction too tight and a second too long. But it’s the first time he hasn’t shoved it deep, deep down under a big pile of reasons not to consider it. </span></p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Dan’s staring at him, expression unreadable. He turns back to his papers. “I can’t play this game with you, Casey,” he says flatly. </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Casey’s suddenly afraid he’s pushed too far, reopened some old wound. He wipes his sweaty palms on his trouser legs and tries to keep his voice steady. “Single, now, too.”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“Case…” Dan says, barely above a whisper, almost pleading. </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Casey’s not sure what for. So he takes a guess, and gets up and goes over, pulling up a chair next to Dan. </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“You can’t just...” Dan trails off, because Casey is so close, their faces inches apart. </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5"><span class="tm6">“Danny,” he says, squeezing his knee.</span> <span class="tm6">And then Dan closes the distance between them. </span></p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">It’s a soft, chaste, hesitating kiss, more a question than a declaration. Casey’s steadying himself on Dan’s knee, but otherwise, they keep their hands to themselves. When Dan pulls back, he looks startled: deer, headlights, the whole thing. </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5"><span class="tm6">A part of Casey is tempted to play it off as a goof, reset them to where they were this morning. Instead, he grunts “Come here,” and pulls Dan in for a proper kiss, sliding his free hand into the hair at the nape of Dan’s neck. He swipes his tongue along Dan’s lower lip and he opens up underneath him, balling his fists in the front of Casey’s shirt. It’s rough and hot and desperate, and Casey moves the hand on Dan’s knee up to mid-thigh. He tugs on his hair, and Dan </span> <em> <span class="tm7">moans</span></em><span class="tm6">. </span></p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Casey is half crawled into Dan’s lap, so he finishes the job, straddling him in his chair. Dan’s hands wind around to the small of Casey’s back, pulling him in tight. </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Suddenly Dan breaks the kiss and pushes him away. “Casey,” he says, low and throaty, “Glass wall.”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Casey jumps to his feet, straightening his shirt and clearing his throat. He scans the floor through their office glass wall, checking to see if anyone was watching. “I am a dumbass,” he deadpans, clapping Dan on the shoulder. </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“You didn’t know that either?” Dan shoots back, holding back a grin. </span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">Casey shifts his hand from Dan’s shoulder to the place where his shoulder meets his neck, rubbing small circles near his collarbone. “Come over to my place after the show.”</span>
</p><p class="Normal tm5">
  <span class="tm6">“Sure,” Dan says, and goes back to marking the pages on the table in front of him. Casey sits back at his desk and writes a joke about the Washington Wizards. He reads it out to Dan, and he laughs, then smiles at Casey, warm and bright and fond. Casey grins back. </span>
</p>
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